Even when he is out, Rafael Nadal will always be part of the French Open
In case you only have time to read the first paragraph on your phone in this distracted era, here’s the essential from Rafael Nadal: No French Open this year for the first time since 2004; no pension yet.
But of course there is much more to Nadal’s story, especially at Roland Garros, the Grand Slam tournament he has dominated like no player has dominated a tennis major.
His 14 singles titles still look like a typo, even to those like me who’ve watched him build that probably unbreakable record, red brick by red brick.
“When you play Roland Garros 14 times, you tell yourself you’ve had a good career,” French veteran Nicolas Mahut said in an interview with L’Équipe. “If you win 14 games there, that’s not bad at all. If you come 14 times in the second week, you are one of the big players. And when you win the title 14 times, it’s unbelievable. There are no words.”
Although Nadal is Spanish, even the organizers of the French Open succumbed to the weight of all the hardware and erected a glittering, life-sized statue of Nadal just inside the main entrance to the tournament grounds.
His reign in Paris – replete with flexed biceps, forehand winners and underrated skill – is one of the greatest achievements in any sport, and while a 15th title is a gamble at this late stage, we’re only sure that Nadal won’t be this year to win.
He announced his withdrawal from this year’s French Open at a press conference on Thursday in his hometown of Manacor at his academy of the same name: another monument to his tennis excellence.
Dressed in jeans and a white short-sleeved shirt, Nadal, who turns 37 on June 3, calmly and fully explained that he had lost his last race against time: not recovering sufficiently from a core muscle injury he suffered in January at play the Australian Open.
“It’s not a decision I made, it’s a decision my body made,” he said.
Nadal, still only interested in playing if he has a chance to win, will stop practicing for an extended period of time, probably several months, due to the pain. He hasn’t ruled out a return to competition later in 2023 – citing the Davis Cup final to be held in Malaga, Spain in November – but above all, he aims to return for what he said is “probably” would be his finale. season 2024.
“I don’t want to put myself in a position to say one thing and then do another, but my goal and my ambition is to try to stop and give myself a chance to enjoy next year,” he said, sighing audibly in the middle of a sentence. like he was fighting himself to talk about the finish line.
John McEnroe, a more explosive tennis champion, used press conferences as therapy and worked through his problems and misadventures through question-and-answer play. Nadal, with his left eyebrow arched, did a bit of the same on Thursday and, unlike McEnroe, did it in Spanish, English and Mallorcan, the dialect of Nadal’s home island and the lingua franca of the Nadal family.
Whatever the language, the message was the same: Nadal is fed up with gritting his teeth during practice sessions, but he craves a happier ending.
There are no guarantees given that his body is failing him faster and faster. Often injured even in his youth, he breaks his tennis legacy in new places: a broken rib and abdominal injury in 2022 and the hip injury in 2023, suffered mid-game in his outright second-round defeats to Mackenzie McDonald in Australia.
Maybe Nadal shouldn’t have gone through that pain, but he’s as gritty as the red clay that best suits his game. And even though he’s newly married and has a new dad with a fancy yacht and an impressive golf handicap, he’s not ready to join Roger Federer, his friend and former arch-rival, in a gold-plated retirement.
“I don’t think I deserve to end up like that in a press conference,” Nadal said. “I want a different ending and I’m going to do my best to get it done.”
He added: “I don’t know if I can be competitive to win a Grand Slam. I am not an irrational person. I am aware of the difficulty of the situation. But I’m not a negative person either. I want to give myself the chance to come back and compete.”
Farewell trips have their own dangers. Former world No. 1 and six-time Grand Slam singles champion from Sweden, Stefan Edberg announced well in advance that 1996 would be his last season and eventually regretted it, exhausted by the post-match ceremonies and the happy hand. When Edberg coached Federer, he advised him to keep it shorter to make it sweeter, and Federer listened: He waved off short-term last September at age 41 by playing doubles with Nadal at the Laver Cup team event in London .
It was a poignant scene that left both champions — and many observers — in tears as Federer called it a career. Most of the other tennis greats – from Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras to Steffi Graf and Serena Williams – have kept their farewells compact. In the case of Sampras, he avoided the farewell tour altogether and won his last tournament, the 2002 US Open.
But Nadal is certainly used to carrying the weight of others’ expectations and being polite about the spotlight. A star at home since he helped Spain beat the United States and win the Davis Cup at the age of 18 in 2004, he has been a global star since winning the French Open at the age of 19 in 2005, his debut in the field .
He probably would have won Roland Garros even sooner had he not missed the event in 2003 and 2004 due to injuries. But despite all the physical challenges he faced, he managed to play his signature tournament 18 years in a row, only retiring halfway through the tournament once in 2016 due to a wrist injury.
It has become as much a part of the Roland Garros landscape as the red clay under everyone’s feet, but this spring it will be someone else’s domain.
Novak Djokovic, who turns 36 on Monday, is the only player to beat Nadal twice at the French Open and remains tied with Nadal for the men’s record with 22 Grand Slam singles titles. But while Djokovic is built to last with his stretchy limbs and centennial diet, he’s struggled with elbow pain and looks far from irresistible on clay this season.
The younger set looks like the slightly better bet. Carlos Alcaraz, 20, is back at No. 1 and already a Grand Slam champion after winning last year’s US Open. Holger Rune, also 20, beat Djokovic this week in Rome and has elastic limbs himself. You can add Stefanos Tsitsipas, Casper Ruud, Jannik Sinner or even Daniil Medvedev, formerly allergic to clay, to the shortlist without ruling out a bigger surprise.
Nadal, absent from the draw for the first time in nearly two decades, said he won’t watch it all from a distance, but he will keep an eye on it.
Last year he drew some criticism from pro-Djokovic quarters for insisting that no tournament is bigger than a single player when Djokovic missed the 2022 Australian Open after arriving in Melbourne, not vaccinated for the coronavirus and being deported.
“The Australian Open is going to be a great Australian Open with or without him,” Nadal said before winning it himself.
But he clearly wanted to be consistent on Thursday.
“My speech will not change,” he said. “Roland Garros will always be Roland Garros, with or without me without a doubt.”
He continued: “Players stay for a while and then leave. Tournaments last forever.”
That’s true and will seem even more true when another man wearing red socks is crowned champion next month in Paris. But there can also be no doubt that Nadal and Roland Garros will be linked as long as there is a Roland Garros.